Review of Social Audit Tools for Youth Consultancy.

Background and Rationale By 2030, youth in the Asia-Pacific are estimated to exceed over 700 million, constituting almost 15 per cent of the total population. The pandemic, technology and climate change are some of the drivers that are rapidly changing the labour market and prospects for youth. Addressing youth employment challenges are crucial to the overall region’s stability and sustainable development.

In the Asia and Pacific Region, young workers are increasingly educated, yet the lack of decent work opportunities for young people in the pre-COVID-19 period is evident in given statistics: 84 per cent of young people in the region were in informal employment, working under precarious terms and without access to social protection, versus 69 per cent of the adult; one in four young workers was living in conditions of extreme or moderate poverty (below US $3.20 a day), versus 18% of adults. Working poverty was particularly high among youth in Southern Asia (45 percent) and was lowest in Eastern Asia (7 per cent).

Globally the sub region with the highest NEET (Not in education, employment or training) rate in 2019 was Southern Asia, where 30 percent of young people were NEETs. Nearly three quarters of NEETs in Asia and the Pacific are young women, many of whom engage in care and own- production work in the home.

Skills and Opportunities for Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship (SOYEE) is one of the six priority areas for Plan International and focuses on ensuring that vulnerable and excluded young people, especially young women, are resilient and are actively engaged in decent work of their choosing, be it waged or self-employed. The key investment areas in SOYEE are Expanding and strengthening technical, entrepreneurial and life skills of vulnerable, excluded young people, especially young women, working with public and private actors to enable women to compete in a 21st century labor market, promoting youth saving groups as a cornerstone for financial inclusion, resilience building and enterprise development, expanding youth employment and entrepreneurship in emergencies.

Young people have the best understanding of their own lives, but rarely have the opportunity to to shape them by effectively participating in the decisions that influence their lives. Meaningful youth participation is an active engagement of young people throughout their own communities. It often takes many forms including participation in decision making, processes, activities that affect their lives. As an organisation that works for and with young people, Plan International believes that when young people are supported to participate in influencing, monitoring and evaluation process, decisions and activities that concern them, the greater and longer-lasting impacts will be. In understanding the important role young people have, Plan International’s Asia- Pacific Regional Hub (APAC Hub) hopes to learn from existing tools and resources that are designed to be used by youth to inform future initiatives involving youth in the region.

Scope of work

APAC Hub seeks a consultant to undertake a desk-based review mapping of social audit tools for youth and provide recommendations on best practices within Skills and Opportunities for Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship. APAC Hub will use the review and recommendation to inform and design future social audit tool involving the youth in the region.

Key responsibilities include:

· Mapping existing social audit tools for youth used by Plan International as well as youth organisations and civil society in the youth economic empowerment sector in the Asia Pacific region.

· Identifying and analyzing strengths and weaknesses, technical and capacity gaps, scalability and replicability in other countries in the Asia Pacific context of existing tools for youth

· Provide clear recommendation on the best practices of tools for meaningful youth participation focusing on programmes relating to Skills and Opportunities for Youth Employment and Entrepreneurship.

Key Deliverables and tentative timeframe

The consultant will be expected to review social audit tools for youth developed by Plan International as well as map and review tools developed by external organisations. Based on the strengths and weakness of these tools, the consultant will then provide recommendations to the APAC Hub.

The assignment is estimated to be completed in 20 working days starting 28 April 2022 and completed by 1 June 2022. The timeframe is indicative and can be reevaluated in consultation between Plan International and the consultant (s).

Task /Timeframe/**Estimated no. of work days/** Deliverable

• Hold an initial meeting to discuss the overall tasks and deliverables / By 2 May2022 / 1

• Develop a draft report and submit to Plan APAC / By 11 May 2022 / 7

• Draft report / Plan reviews and provides feedback on draft report / By 18 May 2022/ N/A

• Incorporate Plan’s feedback and share second draft for feedback / By 25 May 2022 / 7

• Draft report / Plan reviews and provides feedback on second draft / By 1 June 2022 / N/A

• Incorporate Plan’s feedback and submit final report / By 7 June 2022 / 5

• Final report / Plan reviews and approve final report / By 15 June 2022 / N/A

Total 20 days

Qualifications

Academic qualification:

· An advanced university degree in social sciences or other fields related to the scope of the assignment.

Technical Knowledge, skills and experience:

· Experience in conducting and coordinating social audits related to youth engagement and skills and opportunities for youth employment and entrepreneurship is preferred

· Experience in conducting similar assignment/s is highly preferred.

· Excellent report writing, presentation and communication skills in the English language.

· Excellent and demonstrated analytical skills

Excellent interpersonal skills and ability to quickly incorporate feedback from different individuals

Evaluation Criteria

Candidates will be evaluated in following:

Criteria / Weight

• Academic qualification / 20%

• Technical knowledge, skills and experience / 40%

• Methodology / 20%

• Financial proposal / 20%

Total 100 %